Wet Wednesday

I was planning to run some errands this morning, but it is currently pouring rain so I decided that staying home sounded like a better plan. Thought I'd take this opportunity to introduce the newest member of our family - isn't she lovely?!? We've been planning this purchase for several months now, and after much shopping around we finally settled on this beauty. I cannot even describe my excitement when she was placed in the laundry hallway. Finally, I can buy more than a week's worth of meat at a time. And last night I got a little crazy at Wally World and bought some *big* bags of frozen veggies. I even picked up a second loaf of bread to have on hand. Wahoo!!

In other happenings, we experienced the Great Lego Spill of '10 on Friday. Our son decided that he was going to lug the big bin (stored in his bedroom upstairs) down to the living room. Guess how that worked out? Honestly, it wasn't all that bad to clean up since it was confined to the stairwell - it would have been much worse if it had happened in the LR when they would have rolled under furniture, etc. And for any of you who happen to have bins like this - I highly recommend investing in some little dustpans from the dollar store. We have 2 "scoopers" that are stored right in with the Legos and greatly facilitate clean-up time. I was certainly thankful that we had them this time around!

Our daughter had her first ballet lesson yesterday afternoon, so she has taken to pirouetting about the house... which is pretty funny since she is just about as coordinated as her Mama (which isn't a good thing). In between managing the chaos and stocking the freezer, I have nearly finished packing for my paper bliss weekend.

Lastly, I wanted to share this link for some good, practical tips on involving our children in the simplification process (there's also some great stuff to be found with the "similar posts" link at the bottom). I think that term is suffering from overuse, but there is definitely something to be said for clearing the unnecessary from our lives... still very much a work in progress at the D home.

"Living With Less" contest

Here's a fun opportunity for you! To celebrate the release of Hearts at Home’s newest book: Living With Less So Your Family Has More, by Jill and Mark Savage, the Hearts at Home blog is launching the Living with Less Contest.

Email Hearts at Home a story or money-saving tip that gives a peek into your daily experiences representing the humor, richness, or spiritual aspects of what it’s like to live with less.

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hello!

Time to break internet silence :) Seriously, though, life just continues to be crazy... Our schedules aren't even all that full, but there never seems to be a spare moment. One exciting bit of news - at least for ME - is that I'm going away next weekend. WAHOO!!! Yep, I'm off to a scrapbooking retreat Friday-Sunday. I know I'll have a ball, and it's also served as a good motivator to get my craft space organized. Everywhere else is pretty settled, but this corner still has boxes stacked up. Proud to say that I've gotten a lot done in the past week - and sad to admit that it's more than had been accomplished in the previous 3 months.

So what else is new? Well, I went out with a friend last week and we saw Avatar in 3-D. Very fun experience (I personally didn't think the storyline itself was that great, but the effects, colors, etc were amazing). We've been spending quite a bit of time outside as the past 2 weeks have been in the 70s-80s. I *do* love the balmy temps, but am not so fond of the mosquitoes. Still trying to decide what we're going to do in the yard - as much as we love all the palm trees, the space is really overplanted and is in need of some major pruning. Not to mention that I'd like to replace some of the greenery with fruits and/or vegetables. One of hubby's coworkers is giving us some fig & peach trees, so we need to decide where they'll go. And once those are in, we're also going to buy a pomegranate tree. YUM! Still trying to wrap my head around the fact that we're talking about this while half the country is blanketed with ice/snow.

One last request: please continue to pray for us with the church situation and our son's behavior at school. These are the 2 areas where we're still really struggling and need wisdom. Thanks!

The Girl, and Christmas Recap

Don't know how it happened, but our "baby" is now officially 5 YO! I snapped this picture on Sunday morning - she wanted to wear her fancy dress, and asked if I could make her hair "pretty." We had some time, so I worked my blow dryer magic to create this stunning look :)

Thought I'd show a pic of the lovely shingles, too. I am so thankful that she wasn't in a lot of pain. She was tired and very snuggly, but that was about it. The other pic is from the little party that we had on Sunday night. Nothing elaborate -we had 1 other family come over for dinner and birthday brownies, then the kids decorated crowns, made candy necklaces, and had a birthday blower fight. Good times, good times!








I finally uploaded pictures from Christmas, too. There are lots of pics of our Arizona antics (including a trip to the Natural History Museum) if you'd like to check them out HERE.

Ponderings

It's been a crazy week. Our daughter's shingles are much better, but she's not quite back to her normal self yet. I'm fighting off some sort of stomach bug. We're planning to celebrate our daughter's birthday this weekend (she turns 5 on Monday!), so I'm praying that we're all back to normal *very* quickly. I'm also just generally in a bit of a funk - I have a million and one things I need (and don't even get me started on the "want" list) to get done and am feeling overwhelmed and rather discouraged. Obviously nothing will be accomplished by my whining, and this isn't the sort of attitude that I want my kiddos to see, either, but I just can't seem to pull it together. I definitely need to be spending more time in prayer and in His Word... whatever state I may be in, my Savior is bigger than all of it, and already has the answers when I'm ready to listen. And I should add that I was richly blessed by a couple friends this week - I know that He is ministering to me through the caring actions of others.

Finally, I just want to say that it is COLD. It will be below freezing three nights in a row - a major event for South Texas. Part of me is laughing a bit, as "cold" is definitely a relative thing. During the news earlier this week, they were talking about the preparations being made around the area. They were speaking with several families about how they were planning to stay warm. They didn't have many warm clothes, and showed footage of one lady hanging a quilt on one wall in an effort to block the wind, all while wrapped in a towel. The houses didn't even have sheetrock, much less insulation. And my hubby came home from work last night, talking about how they expect less than half of the workers in the Mexico plant to show up today - schools are closed, and families are huddling together to stay warm. Neighbors are coming together, gathering in 1 house, and buying extra bags of charcoal so they can keep a small fire burning in some sort of metal container. Definitely a reminder of just how very blessed we are - I can keep my house warm by simply pressing the button on my thermostat. Not to mention that we have abundant clothing, food, etc. Are we being good stewards wtih those blessings?!

Ringing in the New...

Wow, so much to say. We had a magnificent time over Christmas, celebrating with family out in Arizona. We survived the 34 total hours in the car quite nicely, with only 1 incident of car sickness. The kids had a wonderful time playing with their cousins, hubby was able to clean up Mom's garage (and we now have a lot more tools in ours), played around with webcams (I had a great conversation with my BIL on skype while sitting approximately 2 feet apart) and of course there was a ton of food consumed by all :) We actually arrived back home on Dec 31, so had a couple days to get back to "normal" before returning to school and work schedules today. Oh how I hated to hear the alarm go off this morning!

In other interesting news, our daughter has shingles. Yes, it is VERY unusual in little kids (especially considering she never had chicken pox but only the vaccine). Thankfully she is not having a lot of pain or itching, but she is contagious until the rash dries up (which will probably take another 3 days or so) so we're going to be hanging out at home for a bit. Probably a good thing as there is still a *ton* I need to get done.

Of course there are a slew of pics I'd like to share - hoping to post some by tomorrow, but we'll have to see whether the computer cooperates. We've been having issues with it, and it's now started turning itself off and on randomly. Yeah, that's fun! We're planning to order a new unit sometime this week, which means that my dreams of a freezer will be pushed back until February.

So have you made any New Year's resolutions? I try to avoid them, but I will admit that I'm working on getting healthier. Had made some small gains last year, but also slipped into some bad habits amidst all the craziness of our lives. And what better way to kick off the decade than with a desire to compete in bikini modeling competitions (kidding! KIDDING!!!!!) Seriously, though, I want our family to tweak our eating habits, and I definitely need to tone up. I want to concentrate on 1 item each month, and in January my plan is to exercise for 20 minutes 2x/week. I know it's not a particularly lofty goal, but it's a good place to start for me personally. I'll be back each month (around the 5th or so) for a status report and an unveiling of the new goal. We'll see how this works...

I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed.
I remember it all—oh, how well I remember— the feeling of hitting the bottom.
But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:
God's loyal love couldn't have run out, His merciful love couldn't have dried up.
They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness!
I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over). He's all I've got left.

God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks.
It's a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God.
It's a good thing when you're young to stick it out through the hard times.

When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence.
Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions: Wait for hope to appear.
Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face. The "worst" is never the worst.
Why? Because the Master won't ever walk out and fail to return.
If He works severely, he also works tenderly. His stockpiles of loyal love are immense.
He takes no pleasure in making life hard, in throwing roadblocks in the way:
Lamentations 3:19-33, The Message

Christmas time!

Nine days until Christmas. Two days until we leave for Arizona (which the kiddos don't know about - they just know that we're going somewhere after D gets done with school). There's still an awful lot that I was hoping to get done, but I've crossed many items off my "To Do" list and am actually feeling relatively calm. It's currently pouring rain. Hubby had a rough commute into Mexico this morning as some of the roads had washed out. Thankfully he's back over the border now and will remain here until next year :) I ran some last-minute errands this morning, and the stores weren't crowded at all due to the miserable weather... hey, gotta look at the bright side, right?

Didn't decorate all that much this year; we're definitely planning to do more next year, including putting lights up outside. Had to replace our tree-topper as the angel we purchased as newlyweds started to melt... and while she looked kind of cute bowing to us, the fire hazard factor convinced us to find something new. I'm kind of digging this star in all its sequinned glory! Haven't made a single holiday goodie, unless you count the cranberry pumpkin bread I baked the week before Thanksgiving. I *am* planning to purchase a gingerbread house kit while in AZ and let the kiddos decorate it up with their 2 older cousins. I'm just cultivating some good memories, right?! (wink, wink) We're not taking all of the kids' gifts with us (we'll have a final celebration when we come back home) but I need to wrap up the few items that are making the trip.

Have had some interesting conversations about Santa and holiday celebrations in general with a few people. For anyone that may not know, we don't do Santa at our house. (You can read last year's post on that here). We obviously do lots of other fun stuff - I'm not saying that we should do away with all the ribbons and bows and just meditate by a manger scene - but the crass commercialism of December does get to me... and quite honestly, besides the Jesus vs. Santa issue, I simply want the kids to appreciate the gifts that they receive, and know that those presents were purchased by those who love them, not just an anonymous benefactor. Some good thoughts on "Celebrating Jesus" here, and a fun Christmas Cookie Confession (with bonus new tradition ideas!) here.

I can pretty much guarantee that I won't be posting again until next year, so in the meantime, have a blessed Christmas!!

O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of the dear Saviour's birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
'Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth
A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices
For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn
Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices!
O night divine, o night when Christ was born...